TBF NorthWest Division Championship Presented by LOWRANCE Day 1

Day 1 of the TBF NW Division Championship Presented by Lowrance started out with Flaming Gorge rising steady and the wind howling out of the ENE. Angler shop talk around the motels during practice was all about how tough it was out on the lake to even get a single bite.

Much like most of the country, Green River, WY is just waking up out of a long cold winter. In fact if this event had been one week earlier all the anglers would have been snowbound for an additional couple of days as I-80 was closed border to border in Wyoming due to a snow storm!

This week brings with it the season highest temps yet in Green River with today’s high topping out at 73 degrees.

As is always the case, someone will find and catches fish. For a good bit of day 1 weigh-in it looked like the some of the host team from Wyoming would be the anglers finding the big ones as Bubba O’Neil from Evanston, WY, weighed in with 15-07 and Wyoming state president Kasey Thomas,Green River, WY weighed in 14-08, however it was Idaho who ruled today.

Overall tournament leader is Kyle Gelles, Pingree, ID, anchored the Idaho team with a massive 18-04 including the days big fish of 5-14 in this NO CULL event. O’Neil sits in second with Josh Polfer, Napa, ID is in third with 15-04, Idaho’s Josh Ragan from Rathdrum, ID, sits in fourth with 14-12 and rounding out the top five today was a tie between Wes Wezenbreg from Olympia, WA and Kasey Thomas at 14-08.

In the state federation standings. Idaho is on top with half of their team finishing in the top 13 places, the total weight for Idaho’s 12 person team, sits at 113-01, Washington played the “sleeper” in the standings with solid bags from their team members and they are in second with 102-01.Wyoming sits in third with 93-02 while Montana has 71-08 and Oregon has 71-04.

In total 167 fish were weighed in that weighed 450-15. All fish were released alive and well back into Flaming Gorge.

This three-day event is a dual competition, Individually, between the best 12 anglers from each state federation in TBF’s Northwest Division and on a state team level each states 12 anglers total weight is combined to give a state standing to determine the best state federation team in the NW.

The top individual angler from each state advances to the 2015 TBF Federation National Championship as a boater and the second place anglers from each state advance to the championship as a non-boater. Through our partnership with FLW the top 2 anglers from the TBF NW Div, at the 2015 TBF Federation National Championship will qualify to fish in the 2015 BFL All-American. TBF is the only path to the All-American in the western US.

A glide bait isn't perfect for every situation, but it has gained a place as a big-fish bait and as a great tool for drawing less aggressive bass out into view. FLW Tour pro Braxton Setzer particularly likes one for catching aggressive fish.